March 25, 1911. Hundreds of seamstresses are hard at work on the upper floors of a ten-story factory loft. The workday ends and Esther Greenberg stands from her sewing machine and heads for the stairs, looking forward to her plans for that Saturday evening. "Fire!" someone shouts, and Esther sees smoke outside the windows. The building is ablaze and she's trapped nine stories up.

Charlie Pendergrass has learned a great deal since becoming a fireman-about the job and himself. But he must decide what kind of future he wants, and he just might lose it all to the flames.

From the irascible fire chief Edward Croker to the ruthless business magnate Max Blanck, Hell's Hundred Acres is the richly detailed story of the disparate lives that intersected at one of the deadliest tragedies in New York City history-the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.